Kicking off the Small Screen Diaries today is a look ahead at the week, and some interesting things are afoot. First off, if you’re in the mood for movies, there are plenty of them. Misty Green, the Chris Rock-directed A24 film, is hitting Netflix on Monday, which is a deviation from the typical A24 strategy. Due to the poor reception of the film in theaters, A24 made a special arrangement with Netflix that saw it move rapidly from theaters to streaming. Other theatrical releases hitting streaming this week include PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie, arriving on Paramount+ on Thursday, and The End of Oak Street, heading to HBO Max. Apple’s disability rights epic, Being Human, drops on Friday. Netflix isn’t short on movies of its own, with Alan on Thursday and Heartland on Friday, as well as a Tyler Perry Christmas musical featuring gospel artists like Kirk Franklin and Fantasia on Wednesday, marking Perry’s fourth film of 2026. There’s also a Proud Family Christmas special hitting Disney+ on Saturday, along with a myriad of Christmas movies across your usual Hallmark and Great American Family-type channels. In terms of returning series, the big one this week is The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which hits Amazon on Wednesday with four new episodes. Not a full drop, but also not a weekly rollout. Sort of an odd release strategy, but given that Wednesday is Veterans Day, perhaps they think people will binge-watch The Rings of Power. The Institute also returns to MGM+ for its second season starting today. New shows premiere this week as well, including The Body on Netflix and 121212 on Apple TV. Plenty out there for you to enjoy. Now, onto the rankings.

In first place, it’s East of Eden on Netflix, the series finale, with audio description from Descriptive Video Works, written by Liz Gutman and narrated by Paula Hoffman. What a fantastic series. I loved it all the way through, with excellent performances across the board. I would run Emmy and Golden Globe campaigns for Florence Pugh for lead actress, Christopher Abbott for lead actor, Mike Faist and Tracy Letts for supporting actor, along with whoever plays Lee, and Martha Plimpton for supporting actress. I don’t know that everybody would get nominated, but they’re all worth being part of the conversation. Young Joe Anders, who plays Aaron, is just 23 years old and already has a screenplay at Netflix that was turned into Goodbye June, the directorial debut of Kate Winslet. So, if you feel like you’ve accomplished something today, just remember that Joe Anders wrote a screenplay at 19 that was picked up by Netflix, and now he’s starring in East of Eden, in addition to his previous work. I’d say he’s one to watch out for. I do intend on reviewing this series. We’ll see if that actually comes to fruition.

In second place is the season premiere of Nobody Wants This on Netflix, season three, episode one. I’m finally jumping into this. I really do like this show, and I’m glad to see everybody returning and having that same sort of lived-in dynamic. I’m particularly interested to see what they do with Timothy Simons and Jackie Tohn and their characters, Sasha and Esther. Of course, I’m rooting for them to get back together and work through their marital strife. As I reported yesterday, this has already been picked up for a fourth season, so there’s no need to worry about its future. Keep watching, keep binging, and enjoy.

Third place goes to War on HBO Max, season one, episode six, with audio description by ZOO Digital, narrated by Xanthe Page. The divorce saga continues, but this time the lawyer in the middle of all of it is really trying to make sure his own future is secure, as it seems like the walls are closing in around Johnny. That’s what made this episode interesting to me, whereas I feel like Sienna Miller’s character and her reaction to everything dominated the previous episode. This is an excellent drama series and another potential Emmy contender, particularly for the performances by Dominic West and Sienna Miller.

Fourth place goes to Ghosts on Paramount+, season five, episode 19, with audio description by the Media Access Group. This is the episode where the ghosts and their respective humans are trying to figure out how to get rid of the mayor and get him his job back so he’ll leave them alone and not turn Woodstone into an upscale restaurant. Being behind on Ghosts means I get Ghosts year-round while everybody else has to wait. I’m beginning to think I actually like this methodology of mine, being really behind on things. There’s something to be said for always having another episode waiting for you.

Fifth place goes to Overgeared on Crunchyroll, season one, episode two, with audio description by Global3. I like this show. Basically, it takes everything I’ve said about anime thus far and fully embraces it. This is very much a show about playing a video game, having a video game character, and what it’s like for that character to exist within the game. Our hero is trying to experience the world around him in the game, while in real life he’s exhausted all the time and his family is trying to help him not be so exhausted. But he can earn far more money in the game than he can in real life, so apparently he’s just going to be tired all the time. There’s an interesting sort of cultural expectation woven into the real-life counterpart of the in-game story that dominates the series. What I appreciate is that Overgeared openly acknowledges that some characters are NPCs. It fully embraces the fact that this is, in fact, a video game. There’s no mystery about it. It’s not coded. It’s a video game, and I think the series is better for it. Instead of borrowing video game tropes and trying to pull them into the real world, this one just accepts what it is and runs with it.

In sixth place is Marshals on Paramount+, season two, episode two, with audio description presumably by the Media Access Group. Who knows anymore? Paramount has started dropping information from its credits, but I believe this is still labeled, and it’s the same voice that’s always been there for Taylor Sheridan and his shows. This week, Marshals deals with someone hunting down cops they believe have wronged them, so Kayce and his team have to put a stop to that. A perfectly fine episode. Nothing particularly remarkable, but nothing that would make me want to stop watching, either.

In seventh place is Saturday Night Live on Peacock, the Halloween episode hosted by Indigo Navarrette. She was in some good sketches, and her opening monologue was fun. But there’s no audio description here, and because Peacock suddenly leaped ahead to the Shane Gillis episode, I’m beginning to wonder what exactly they’re doing with these episodes and whether or not they stay on the service. So I jumped on this one and went ahead and watched it. Apparently, it takes longer than a week to upload audio description for Saturday Night Live, if they’re even still doing that. I presume they are, but I didn’t hear it for Shane Gillis, and I haven’t heard it for Indigo. The cold open was a lot of fun, and because this is the Halloween episode, you’d be absolutely right in assuming that there’s a very special guest at the opening.

And that means eighth place goes to The Lowdown, season two, episode one, on Disney+, with audio description. I didn’t really love the first season. I liked it. It was okay. I had considered not continuing with the show, and then Tommy Lee Jones showed up. Sometimes the right casting addition can overhaul a show and send it in the right direction. A great example of this is Shane Gillis’s Tires, which was lagging until they brought in Thomas Haden Church. So I’m intrigued to see Tommy Lee Jones here, but he didn’t do much for the first episode. It was very much Ethan Hawke’s character seeming overly celebratory thanks to the events of the previous season. Can Tommy Lee Jones make The Lowdown more interesting? We shall see.

In terms of best versus worst audio description, for one last time, East of Eden takes the best, while down at the bottom, Saturday Night Live was the only show that didn’t have audio description. I don’t feel like a week is asking too much. Literally a week to the date to get audio description onto the service. If it does exist, it’s taking way too fucking long. So Saturday Night Live gets to be the loser. Peacock, get your shit together. Your show is incredibly topical. The opening monologue even features Trump openly discussing the upcoming midterms, which, as of Halloween, were still upcoming. But by the time I watched it, they had already happened. There are things happening within this episode that are already dated. It’s still fun to watch, but the longer you wait, the older it gets, and the more stale it feels. That’s the nature of Saturday Night Live. If you want people to experience it while it’s still relevant, you need to make it accessible while it’s still relevant.